News

UPS to drop Fritz Brand on July 1 when "all entities that comprise (UPS) Freight Services will begin operating under the UPS Freight Services name," UPS Chief Financial Officer Scott Davis told a Merrill Lynch transportation conference Thursday. The only exceptions will be in some overseas markets where it's required to keep using the Fritz name for legal, contractual or regulatory reasons, said spokesman John Flick.

Davis also said the integration and transfer of seven smaller brokerage firms purchased in 2001 along the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico will also be completed on July 1.

United Parcel Service said it has seen its intra-Asia volume rise almost 19% since it opened a regional hub in the Philippines in April. Responding to strong demand for shipments from Asia, UPS added two extra weekend flights from Hong Kong to the U.S. at the end of May using Boeing 747 freighters.

More than 150 Teamsters political operatives called to Washington by union President James P. Hoffa to plan campaign strategy for 2002 will meet Monday with President Bush, who has been wooing the giant union.

No previous president of either party has met with the Teamsters politicos on such visits to the capital.

A footnote: The Democratic share of Teamsters political contributions, which was 93 percent in 2000, is now down to 80 percent. Republicans working with the union hope to lower the number to 70 percent, but the GOP is unlikely ever to get much more than 30 percent of Teamsters money. Hoffa recently indicated he will add Florida's Gov. Jeb Bush to the list of Republican candidates he will endorse this year.